Until a few months ago, I had quite a large reservation against the principle of powerline technology and up until this point I was hard fought when it came to recommending it. Thankfully though Netgear was able to change all this with the XAVB5201 kit and since then I’ve been totally converted and I can at last put my trust in the technology.

To move on from the simple principle of wired networking, where else is there to go? well the obvious answer is to eliminate the wires and this then in a way questions why one would want to use a powerline kit. Well in many instances wireless has its downfalls mainly due to signal coverage and speed and this is hence why signal boosters and wireless repeaters are available on the market. Truth be told though, wireless extenders still have their pro’s and con’s, the main one being loss of speed and increased ping. When I looked at Netgear’s WN1000RP, it did great in improving the range of my wireless network, but there was a notable drop in speed at the same time which is something that most repeaters do suffer from in varying degrees.

So this is where Netgear’s powerline WiFi Access point comes into play. Simply put it gives the best of both worlds with a point-to-point wired powerline, but also on the remote end, the plug also houses a wireless module that allows users to connect, well – wirelessly. By having the remote access point connected to the powerline directly, there is – in theory – no major loss in wireless performance.

Accompanying the two plugs that make up the powerline kit, Netgear also bundle in a pair of CAT5e patch leads, an installation guide, resource CD and conformity paperwork.

The post Netgear XWNB5201 500Mbps Powerline WiFi Access Point Review appeared first on eTeknix.

Virtually everyone that has access to the Internet at home will have a wired connection and this therefore means that at the heart of their connectivity in the house we will find a router of some shape or from. Typically most of these are ISP supplied items such as BT’s Home Hub or a generic branded router. Whilst these on the whole do as they say on the tin and for the most part of their lives and use run without any problems, there is always a better option.

Most home users would like to get a little bit extra from their router, whether it be a better wireless signal or even media and printer sharing capabilities, there is only one option and that is to replace the supplied equipment. Thankfully, for those that will need the facility, a large number of routers come with a built in ADSL modem to get them connected, but other users like myself may not need this option if they have the likes of fibre broadband where a separate specialist modem is required.

Whilst Netgear produce a lot of enterprise level gear like access points and managed switches that we have recently seen, they have also for many years been producing consumer grade solutions that offer up some of the best wireless performance available on the market. Talking about wireless, for a number of years 54Mbps wireless has an was the standard and over the last few years we have seen the implementation of wireless-N taking wireless to the next level with improved range and speed. To improve on this current standing in wireless technology, we are now starting to see an extension and improvement again for the 802.11 standard with 802.11ac.

The R6300 that we’re going to delve into today is one such router that offer up the latest in wireless performance, with reported speeds of up to 1300Mbps to be found. Along side this it also offer up other features including ReadyShare for printers and storage devices along with an intuitive and easy to use management panel.

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The post Netgear R6300 Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Router Review appeared first on eTeknix.

For a number of years, I’ve had my reservations over the concept of powerline adaptors and this has been a point that I’ve stood against since. This lack of faith was mainly set by a number of different kits that either resulted in very poor throughput (even when plugged in next to each other) or a total lack of connectivity. In a similar light, the concept of transmitting data across a mains cable seems to go against the grain of networking, where running high voltage power cables next to data cables should be avoided to reduce interference and data loss.

As the years have gone on and technology has improved vastly, powerline technology has also come a long way. To see if my woes about powerline adaptors can be set aside and a trust in the technology rebuilt, I’ve been invited to try out one of Netgear’s latest kits, namely the XAVB5201.

For those that are new to the powerline concept, the technology simply uses the existing mains wiring in any building to link together two remote areas that are either too far away to connect by a network cable directly or in a new modern twist, it removes the need to trail cables across the house. There is the argument that there is WiFi for this, but in certain instances, WiFi is not an option.

The post Netgear XAVB5201 500Mbps Powerline Adaptor Review appeared first on eTeknix.

It’s safe to say that having wireless in the home is mandatory these days, but for a large number of people, getting decent signal right through their property can be a nightmare. Take my setup at home for example. Naturally knowing networking as I do, I’ve got everything setup to offer the best reception as possible, however there is one factor in my home that I cannot avoid and that is the walls and floors. A lot of newer properties (such as eTeknix HQ) are built with walls that are hollow with plasterboard coverings, which for a radio signal is great news and on the whole we get a very good coverage; my home on the other hand is a lot different and being an older property, has what I refer to as properly built walls with bricks and mortar. Whilst this is good for hanging a heavy shelf on for example without the fear of the wall coming down under the weight, a wireless signal just can’t penetrate though it as well an consequently a drop in signal and consequently speed is something that I have to deal with in some points in the house.

Naturally this gets frustrating and is a story that can be told for many people, but thankfully there is a solution that is on hand. Wireless signal boosters are by no means a new concept and I’ve been using them for a number of years, either as dedicated boosters, or additional access points dotted about to repeat the signal from the main router. With internet speeds quickly picking up, having a strong [and fast] wireless connection is becoming more and more important as you quickly start to notice the difference that those solid walls start to make.

Netgear’s latest offering is a simple plug and play WiFi booster that is set to do exactly as it says on the tin, with the idea to place it at the point where the signal is still satisfactory, so that it can take that and rebroadcast it to points where were once either a black spot or a region with poor reception. Question is though, with high speed connections becoming the standard, can this step up to the mark?

The post Netgear WN1000RP 2.4GHz WiFi Booster Review appeared first on eTeknix.

Following our recent look at one of Netgear’s Prosafe wireless access points, the WNDAP360, which got a huge thumbs up in our testing, we thought that its worth taking a look at what lies at the heart of each and every network in one form or another and that’s the switches. Without these networking multi-sockets, the internet wouldn’t be and neither would be modern communications. Switches are the unsung heroes of networks and they have probably the hardest time, ensuring that data goes in the right direction depending on the users needs and their configurations and all at high speed.

Netgear as we know have been around for a quite a time and they are one of the leading manufacturers of networking equipment, so its therefore no surprise that you’re likely to find their name somewhere within a large scale network at some point or another. Prosafe is Netgear’s top line of systems and typically these are what you’ll find in the larger networks whilst the rest of their product line-up covers the mid and smaller scales such as home deployment.

The TS724TPS is not just any switch that is purely plug-and-play, this particular model is a managed switch with many options to be played with on its web user interface to tweak and adjust it to operate in a particular fashion based on the end users requirements. On top of that, it is also capable of delivering power over each of its 24 RJ45 Ethernet ports to remote devices like the access point we looked at before and also the likes of IP cameras for ease of deployment and management.

The post Netgear Prosafe GS724TPS 24 Port Gigabit Smart Stackable PoE Switch Review appeared first on eTeknix.

When you look at our catalogue of reviews, its safe to say that we do focus a lot on the component side of your system and whilst this is by no means a bad thing, its worth taking into consideration that without a network, you would be pretty much at a lose end and in recent years (in respect to the scale of how long wireless has been around) wireless connectivity is virtually a must have for any network, whether it be in the home or in a large scale deployment such as an enterprise network.

On the home front, wireless is typically obtained through the means of a wireless router and today the vast majority of ISPs globally will supply a wireless router as part of their connection package. When the scale of the network is raised and security, reliability and performance become less of a convenience but more of a necessity, the systems involved naturally become a little more complex. Netgear are a brand that we have all heard of at one time or another and their entire catalogue of products as you can imagine is nothing but networking based. Its safe to say that they do know a thing or two when it comes to networking and its therefore no surprise that they are one of the industry leaders when it comes to wireless systems.

Prosafe is part of Netgear’s business range of products and the wireless access point that we are going  to take a look at today is one out of tens of products that have been deemed worthy enough of the Prosafe name. As we will see when we look at the system in a little more detail, the WNDAP360 offers upto 15x the speed and 10x the coverage of 802.11a and g networks with its wireless N technology, dual band 2.4GHz and 5GHz operation simultaneously, PoE deployment, 2.4GHz antenna take-offs for improved deployment and an easy mounting mechanism for wall or ceiling fitting.

The post Netgear Prosafe WNDAP360 Wireless-N Access Point Review appeared first on eTeknix.

While routers have never been essential, most people will have at least one in their house, especially with the rapid increase of wireless devices such as laptops, phones, tablets and lots more. Routers allow you to connect to several computers wirelessly or even via ethernet connections, allowing you to create a network with more than one computer. Lots of companies like Virgin Media and other ISPs provide routers with their broadband packages and as such some are installed and never seen again. While this is the simplest solution there are lots of improvements that can be made to a network, for instance, improving wireless coverage, which is where a second router or wireless bridge comes in handy.

ASUS have a very high reputation within the computing industry, especially with regards to motherboards. They do also produce netbooks, displays and various other computer peripherals, and they have been dabbling in networks for a while but without much notable success. We hope that they have with this device put their expertise to good use and have produced a good networking product, as we certainly know that they are capable of this.

The router we are looking at today combines 6 key features, including Access Point, Network Adapter, Wireless Router, Wireless Repeater and a Wi-Fi and 3G device that can share connections between several devices. This is certainly a lot of features, but we have often found this means it is less likely to work, or at least well.

The router is also classed as a Mobile Router, one of the first ever, with a footprint that is smaller than a credit card which should make it very easy to carry as it is pocket sized. They claim it is a full wireless router designed for those on the move, especially businessmen, commuters, students and mobile professionals.

The post Asus WL-330N3G 6 in 1 Wireless-N Mobile Router Review appeared first on eTeknix.

Today we take a look at the Synology USB Station 2 which is the baby of the Synology NAS range. This small device might not feature RAID or data redundancy as it offers no internal capacity for hard drive storage but instead as the name suggests allows external USB hard drives to be used. It does however feature Gigabit connectivity and support for upto 2x 3TB hard drives, It also opens up many options that you can use your attached USB devices for including the ability to use it as media server for your music or a print server to allow your printer to be shared across all your networked PCs.

Specifications

Hardware

• CPU Frequency : 800MHz
• Hardware Encrypted Engine
• Memory : DDR2 128MB
• External HDD Interface : USB 2.0 Port X 2
• Max External Capacity : 2X 3TB external USB hard drives
• Size (HxWxD) : 46 X 122 X 111 mm
• Weight : 147g
• LAN : Gigabit X1
• System Fan : 70x70x25mm x1
• Wireless Support
• Noise Level : 21.0 dB(A)
• Power Recovery
• AC Input Power Voltage : 100V to 240V AC
• Power Frequency : 50 / 60Hz, Single Phase
• Power Consumption : 5W
• Operating Temperature : 5°C to 35°C (40°F to 95°F)
• Storage Temperature : -10°C to 70°C (15°F to 155°F)
• Relative Humidity : 5% to 95% RH
• Maximum Operating Altitude : 10,000 feet
• Certification : FCC Class B, CE Class B, BSMI Class B
• Warranty : 2 Years

Applications

File Browser
File Station
FTP Server

• Bandwidth Control, Custom FTP Passive Port Range, Anonymous FTP, Transfer Log
• Supported Video Format : 3G2, 3GP, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, FLV, M4V, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, QT, WMV, XviD, RM, RMVB, VOB, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3
  User can click and download the following video formats: RM, RMVB, VOB, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3, but not able to play it in Photo Station as compressed Flash video

Audio Station

• Supported Audio Format (USB Mode) : AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, WMA VBR
• Supported Audio Format (Streaming Mode) : MP3, M4A, M4B
• Supported Playlist Format : M3U, WPL
• Internet Radio : SHOUTcast, Radioio

DLNA/UPnP Media Server

• PS3/Xbox 360 Support
• Supported Audio Format : AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, PCM, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO, WMA
• Supported Video Format : 3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, DVR-MS, ISO, M2T, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, MTS, MOV, QT, SWF, TP, TRP, TS, VOB, WMV, XviD
• Supported Image Format : BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, ICO, PNG, PSD, TIF (tiff), UFO
• Supported Subtitles Format : srt, psb, smi, ass, ssa, sub, idx, ifo

Download Station

• Supported Download Protocols : BT/HTTP/FTP/NZB/eMule
• Custom BitTorrent Port Range
• BitTorrent / eMule Bandwidth Control

iTunes Server

• Supported Audio Format : MP3, M4A, M4P, WAV, AIF
• Supported Video Format : M4V, MOV, MP4
• Supported Playlist Format : M3U, WPL

Print Server

• Max Printer # : 2
• Printing Protocols : LPR, CIFS, AppleTalk, AirPrint, Multi Functional Print Server (Only PostScript USB printers are supported in MAC environment)

iPhone/Android Applications

• DS audio
• DS file
• DS finder (Only available on iPhone)

General

Networking Protocols

• CIFS
• AFP
• FTP
• WebDAV
• Telnet
• SSH

File System

• EXT4
• EXT3
• FAT (External Disk Only)
• NTFS (External Disk Only)

File Sharing Capability

• Max User Accounts : 32
• Max Concurrent Connections : 32

Backup Solutions

• Desktop Backup (using Synology Data Replicator 3 or Apple Time Machine backup application)
• Time Machine Backup (Mac)

Security

• FTP over SSL/TLS
• IP Auto-Block
• HTTPS Connection

Management

• Email Notification
• DDNS Support
• IPv6 Support
• PPPoE
• Custom Management UI HTTP/HTTPS Ports

Utilities

• Synology Assistant
• Synology Data Replicator

Supported Clients

• Windows 2000 onward
• Mac OSX 10.3 onward
• Ubuntu 9.04 onward

Supported Browsers

• Chrome
• Internet Explorer : 7, 8, 9
• Firefox : 3.5, 3.6
• Safari (MAC) : 4, 5

Supported Mobile Devices (Photo Station, File Station)

• iPhone OS 2.2.1 onward
• Android OS 1.5 onward
• Windows Mobile (IE Mobile or Opera 9.0 onward)
• Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd Edition onward
• Language : Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese Brazil, Portuguese European, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish

The post Synology USB Station 2 Review appeared first on eTeknix.

Check out http://www.eteknix.com shortly for the full review on this product.

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